I have a very young red tail boa - very weak and malnutritioned - will eat thawed pinkies but seems to be very weak, will kill a small mouse and not be able to finish getting it down - due to exhaustion (I believe) this snake also can not shed a skin and I feel if I help it shed I am hurting it. It is a very friendly natured snake. Please help with some suggestions(on nuritiment, on removing dead skin). Please respond asap not sure how much longer he’s got. Thanks.

Oh, the poor fellow! He really needs to be seen by a vet ASAP. There could be parasites or infection causing these problems and if so nothing will help until the cause is treated.

Keep the temperatures and humidity on the high side of your snake’s preferred comfort range in order to help support him, and you might want to invest in a pinkie pump to liquefy rodents and gently forcefeed him. Make sure he has a good sized soaking bowl with lots of fresh water so he can keep well hydrated. Mist him regularly if you don’t see him soaking.

Don’t help him shed forcibly. You can put wet newspaper in his enclosure and let him slither through it. The moisture and fiber will help to gently loosen retained shed without pulling off new and healty skin along with the dead stuff.

Damn don’t that suck. First thing I would definately do is go to the vet asap. This sounds like a serious matter. MBD? It comes from malnutrition. Feed it vitamin suppliments and go to the vet asap. You might need to force feed him. Like the man above said, make the temperature nice and warm for the little guy. Soaking him in a warm bath can sometimes help but I wouldn’t recommend it without a vet consultant.

What substrate do you keep him in?4" of moist Cypress mulch and a big rock can do wonders for a snake that needs to shed... In 24 hours!Dry is bad...I see snakes on pine shavings and corn cob... Horrible!Someone once brought me a Kingsnake with like three layers of shed. He couldn’t even coil... He said it was that way for months...In the morning it was a brand new snake!